1937 Sind provincial elections

← 1934 1937 1946 →
All 60 seats in the Sind Legislative Assembly 31 seats needed for a majority
Registered	639,043[1]
First party Second party Third party   Leader Allah Bux Soomro Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah Mukhi Gobindram Pritamdas Party SUP SML ABHM Leader's seat Sukkur North West Muslim Landholders Hyderabad City Hindu Seats won 17 16 12   Fourth party   Leader Ghanshyam Jethanand Shivadasani Party INC Leader's seat Hyderabad City suburbs and taluks Hindu Seats won 7
Elected Prime Minister Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah SML

Elections to the Legislative Assembly of Sind were held in January and February 1937.^[1] These were the first elections in the province after its creation in 1936. The Government of India Act 1935 had allocated sixty assembly seats to Sind, based on which it now formed an assembly of its own.^[2]

Under British rule, Sind was a deeply unequal society as reflected in this government survey on literacy^[3]

Muslims were mostly engaged in agriculture (which had recently received a massive boost from the construction of Sukkur barrage) & animal husbandry, while Hindus acted a dominant minority, holding high posts in the bureacracy alongside monopoly over trade and manufacturing industries, thereby exacerbating wealth inequality along religious lines.

The province of Sind had been created in 1936 by separating the Sind division out of the larger Hindu-majority Bombay Presidency, which had been a long-standing demand of the All India Muslim League, first raised in the 1928 All Parties Conference, owing to the Sindhi Muslim resentment against the economic & political dominance of the Sindhi Hindus, ehich had been vociferously opposed by the Hindu Mahasabha, owing to the Hindu paranoia about going back to an era of persecution under the Muslim majority rule, set in the backdrop of nationwide collapse in Hindu-Muslim unity throughout the 1920s and 1930s over issues like Hindi-Urdu controversy, anti-Hindu pogroms committed by Mappila Muslims in the Malabar uprising, Hindu support to the Arya Samaj's anti cow-slaughter movement leading to conflict over the long-standing Islamic practice of publicly slaughtering cows during Bakrid, Rangila Rasul controversy & murder of Swami Sraddhanand, in addition to the Manzilgarh dispute. The Indian National Congress, while riding on a wave of nationwide mass appeal following Gandhi's Salt Satyagraha, was extremely unpopular in Sindh due to its persistent refusal to recognise the deteriorating intercommunal relations, rejection of separate electorates for Muslims that had been granted by the Government of India Act 1909 in its Nehru Report, neutrality over the issues of Sindhi provincial autonomy and the Communal Award, alongside its insistence on representing both Hindus and Muslims. Congress support in Sindh was largely restricted to the urban Hindu middle-class gentry, while the Hindu Mahasabha enjoyed widespread support from the Hindu rural & mercantile communities. Despite Jinnah's tour of the province, the All India Muslim League had barely any presence in the state, where Muslim political consciousness was largely restricted to the rich & elite groups like feudal families and descendants of Sufi saints, opposed to the Muslim League's communalism due to ideological and personal issues, instead campaigning on the grounds of rural development & co-operative finances. A British government observer summarised the political atmosphere of Sind as follows^[3]

Politically, the province is backward. Only the Hindu minority is politically minded, the Muslims owning allegiance to personalities rather than to principles. The Hindus are openly afraid of Muslim dominance and of being ousted from public life. They have already communicated this fear to the new Governor Sir Lancelot Graham, who has assured them of his sympathy and determination to safeguard their legitimate interests. On the other hand, there is growing evidence of a desire on the part of the Muslim community to reassure the minority in regard to the continued enjoyment of its rights. Leaders of both communities are working for the creation of an understanding between the two which will bring about an era of intercommunal cooperation and goodwill so necessary for the successful working of the reformed constitution (i.e the GoI Act) under unfavourable financial conditions.

The Sind Legislative Assembly, alongside the N. W. F. P. Legislative Assembly, happened to be the only legislative assemblies of British India to not have reserved seats for Dalits, Christians and Anglo-Indians.

Source^[4]

While the Sind United Party had emerged as the winner of the election its two most prominent leaders (Haji Abdullah Haroon and Shah Nawaz Bhutto) had failed to win the seats they contested.^[2] Haroon had contested the Lyari constituency, in northern Karachi. The Lyari seat was won by Allah Baksh Gabol. The Larkana seat, which Bhutto had contested, was won by Sheikh Abdul Majid Lilaram, a newly converted Muslim.^[1]

With Congress support being largely restricted to the cities and immediate suburbs of Karachi & Hyderabad, (Upper Sindh Frontier district being the only rural Hindu constituency to be won by the party), the Hindu Mahasabha emerged as the undisputed leader of Sindhi Hindu society, wining largely the 10 out of the 15 rural Hindu seats. This was a reversal of the national trends, where Congress was able to decisively consolidate the rural Hindu support due to Nehru's socialist campaign.

Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah of the Sind Muslim League was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Sind on 28 April 1937 with the support of Hindu Mahasabha, one Sind United Party MLA (G. M. Syed) the lone independent Muslim MLA & Sind Azad Party MLA (Pir Ilahi Baksh), alongside Mukhi Gobindram Pritamdas and Mir Bandeh Ali Khan Talpur, a scion of Sind's erstwhile ruling Talpur family as his cabinet ministers. The assembly convened at Karachi, having elected Hindu Mahasabha MLA Bhojsingh Pahlajani as the speaker.^[5]

However, by the next year, Sir Abdullah Haroon had managed to ensure merger of Hidayatullah's party with the All India Muslim League, alongside that of the Sind Azad Party. This caused all the Hindu MLAs to rally behind Allah Baksh Soomro, who was sworn in on 23 April 1938, with Hindu Mahasabha MLA Nihchaldas Vazirani as his deputy. Haroon, with the help of G. M. Syed orchestrated defection of 10 out of 17 Sind United Party MLA's, but Soomro survived the no-confidence motion by giving ministerial positions to the defectors.^[2][6] Syed Miran Muhammad Shah was elected as the new speaker of the assembly, with Allah Baksh Khudadad Gabol being the deputy speaker.

Soomro served until 18 April 1940 when a no-confidence motion was passed against him by the Indian National Congress and Muslim League due to the deteriotion of law and order following communal riots between Hindus & Muslims over the Manzilgarh dispute and a series of inflammatory speeches given by Hindu Mahasabha leader B. S. Moonje during on his tour of the province.^[7] He was briefly brought back to power and served briefly from 27 March 1942 – 14 October 1942, but was dismissed by the Governor due to his support for the Quit India Movement.^[7]